The Voice of the Martyrs' blog, sharing powerful stories and timely information that invites and inspires American Christians into fellowship with their persecuted family around the world.

September 11, 2008

Iran: Martyr's Son Detained in Wave of Arrests

The following news is from our friends at Compass Direct. You may read the full article here.

Four other Christians arrested as apparent crackdown continues.

LOS ANGELES, September 10 (Compass
Direct News) – Five arrests in three cities across Iran in August
suggest a continued crackdown on Iranian Christians by authorities,
sources told Compass. The most recent of the arrests took place on Aug.
21, when Ramtin Soodmand, son of martyred Assemblies of God pastor
Hossein Soodmand, turned himself in after repeated calls from the
Ministry of Information in Tehran. His father was executed by the state
in 1990 for leaving Islam. The week before Ramtin Soodmand turned
himself in, another Christian in Mashhad, Iman Rashidi, was arrested.
In the city of Kerman in south central Iran, a couple identified as
Darioush and Shirin were reportedly arrested on Aug. 8. And a Christian
member of Iran’s Kurdish community, Shahin Zanboori, was arrested on
Aug. 9 in the southwestern city of Arak. Secret police detained
Zanboori while he was evangelizing, sources told Compass. While in
prison he was tortured during interrogation and suffered a broken arm
and leg, but he told sources that he “felt God’s presence in spite of
the horrific treatment he received.”